The present invention relates to a machine for the packing or unpacking of articles into or out of containers, especially bottles into or out of bottle boxes, with the machine including a conversion mechanism, for the articles, that is associated with conveyer tracks for the articles and the containers. The conveyer tracks extend parallel to one another, and lead to and away from the sides of the machine. The conversion mechanism is provided with one or more transfer units that can be moved in a circular path, about a vertical central axis, into and out of the regions above the two conveyer tracks. Each transfer unit includes a pick-up and carrier head on a support element that can be raised and lowered in a controlled manner within the appropriate region of the conveyer tracks. The pick-up and carrier head is provided with means for receiving, transporting in a suspended manner, and depositing a group of the articles associated with an accommodating space within a container. The pick-up and carrier head is also provided with means for aligning a respective container.
A machine of this general type for loading or unloading open boxes of bottles is known from German Pat. No. 1 035 559 Steinle dated May 27, 1959, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 2,996,995, Steinle dated Jan. 3, 1961, where a conversion mechanism for the bottles is disposed on three conveyer tracks that are arranged parallel to one another. These conveyer tracks include one for delivering the bottle boxes, one for carrying off the bottle boxes, and one for delivering or withdrawing the bottles. The conversion mechanism contains four transfer units that are rotated in a circular path and are associated with a rotary carriage. Each transfer unit includes a pick-up and carrier head for the bottles, and a pick-up and carrier mechanism for the bottle boxes. With this last-mentioned pick-up and carrier mechanism, the bottle boxes are received from the conveyer track that delivers them, are carried along on half of the circular movement path of the transfer unit, and are then deposited on the withdrawal conveyer track. Along this half of the movement path, the pick-up and carrier head for the bottles is lowered relative to the pick-up and carrier mechanism for the bottle boxes, and is again raised in order during the rotation of the transfer unit to be able to place the bottles into the respective bottle box or to be able to remove the bottles from the respective bottle box. Due to the necessity for having to remove the bottle boxes from a conveyer track and having to place them on a different conveyer track, considerable additional expense is required with this heretofore known loading and unloading machine, not only with regard to the additional pick-up and carrier mechanisms for the bottle boxes on the transfer units themselves, and to the transfer mechanisms or receiving mechanisms for the bottle boxes required on the conveyer tracks for the latter, but also with regard to precise control for the receiving and transfer of the bottle boxes. Furthermore, for the sake of operational reliability, such known loading and unloading machines can be operated only slowly, so that it is possible to achieve only a limited through put capacity.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to significantly improve a loading and unloading machine of the aforementioned general type such that during loading or unloading the yet sufficient time remains in order to reliably place the articles in the container or remove the articles therefrom, while the respective container travels further on its conveyer track. Movements derived from purely rotational or circular movements should be used, with these movements being smooth and as free as possible from abrupt changes in movement.